Wilder Fulfills Dream

After All The Hoopla, State's Chief Executive Faces Herculean Task

January 14, 1990|By BOB KEMPER Staff Writer

RICHMOND — When he removed his hand from the Bible Saturday, L. Douglas Wilder, a man whose managerial skills often have been criticized, officially assumed responsibility for a $13 billion annual business with 6 million clients: the state of Virginia.

Wilder was a marvel at making history. The question now is how he will do at the more mundane job of actually running the government.

Gov. Wilder is taking control of an ailing company. It enjoyed years of growth and surpluses. Now it's short of funds and cutting back. The immediate future looks difficult.

As he proposes solutions, Wilder will endure constant comparison to his Demoratic predecessors - U.S. Sen. Charles S. Robb and Gerald L. Baliles - highly regarded politicians who observers say are better at detail work and delegating authority than Wilder.

When the state's fiscal headache is under control - possibly before - there will be more expected from the new chief executive. Anti-drug programs will have to be developed, more prison beds must be added to relieve overcrowded jails, highways must be built, and a balance will have to be struck between those who build and those who want to protect the environment.

Wilder is expected to outline his administration's agenda in a speech to the General Assembly Monday.

And the nation's first elected black governor will do it all under the watchful gaze of more than the 6 million residents of Virginia. It's likely the nation, possibly the world, will be watching.

"I don't think any governor will be put under the microscope like Doug Wilder," said Larry Sabato, a University of Virginia political scientist.

National and international reporters have been following Wilder's effort since the fall campaign. Two books have already been written about him, with a third on the way.

Likely to be among those watching him are the national Democratic leaders sizing him up for a possible run on a future presidential ticket, observers said.

"I think Wilder will see his national prospects related very much to his ability to prove that he can be a fiscally conservative governor," said Robert Holsworth, a Virginia Commonwealth University political scientist.

"Obviously he's going to have to find money for his own programs," said state House Majority Leader Thomas W. Moss Jr., D-Norfolk. "Budgetary problems have got to be a real headache for the gentleman. This is not crying wolf. We do have a shortfall."

One of Baliles' last acts as governor was to propose a $25.8 billion budget for the next two years. While the state's tax revenues are growing, the increase in income is much less than the government had grown accustomed to. Expensive federal mandates and the cost of dealing with prison overcrowding have added to the crunch.

In his inaugural address, Wilder told the thousands who gathered on the Capitol lawn that he was facing the budget crunch "with measured sobriety." He added, "I do not intend to participate in bringing to a halt the momentum to which people of Virginia have grown accustomed, supported and enjoyed."

But the state's budget problems offer as much opportunity as peril for Wilder, Sabato said. For a governor who wants to leave his mark, the only thing better than having extra money for new programs is having to demonstrate an ability to get by with less, he said.

"It's power ... and Doug Wilder enjoys the exercise of power like few we've ever seen," Sabato said.

An advantage for Wilder is that the difficult task of deciding where to cut state spending had to be taken up by Baliles before he left office. Wilder still can tinker with the plan, but the situation makes it easier for Wilder to say no to groups who have supported him and who now may be looking for something in return.

"It lowers expectations," Sabato said. "He has a built-in excuse."

Politicians and observers give Wilder credit already for surrounding himself with a capable, experienced cabinet and staff who will handle the details of governing, and with marshalling the fiscal talent to keep the books balanced. Like Wilder, who spent 16 years in the state Senate and four as lieutenant governor, they are political insiders.

"I think you can look at the cabinet appointments to see the tone" of the Wilder administration, said state Sen. Robert C. Scott, D-Newport News. "You have a continuation of the Robb-Baliles style of governing, and I think that's what people expected.

"The priorities will still be economic development, transportation, housing," Scott said. "I think Governor Wilder will focus more on youth development."

A sloganeering Wilder has declared the 1990s the decade of youth and family.

Holsworth characterizes Robb, who took office as the 1981-82 recession struck the state budget, as the governor who proved Democrats can pinch pennies as well as Republicans, compared to the innovative Baliles. "I think Wilder is going to be much more in the Robb mold rather than the Baliles mold."